1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to network communications and more specifically to a system and method for intelligently failing back network connections in a load-balanced networking environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Performance and reliability are key requirements for modern computer networks. When a network interface card (“NIC”) fails or becomes unreliable and then returns to a fully functional state, the computing device may realize improved network performance by redistributing network connections to the now-functional NIC. More specifically, if a particular NIC in the computing device is or becomes overloaded, network performance may be improved by redistributing network connections between functional NICs in the computing device, including the recovered NIC. However, the overhead related to transferring connections from one NIC to another NIC may exceed the performance benefits of redistributing traffic among the functional NICs within the computing device. In such cases, overall networking performance may be reduced by attempting to redistribute the network connections. Additionally, the transferred connections may overload an efficiently operating NIC, thereby reducing the performance and reliability of that NIC.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is a technique for transferring network connections to one or more functional NICs in a computing device when failing back network connections that reduces the likelihood of NIC overloading or other phenomena that can impair overall system performance.